Monday Routine

by laur3xplores

“Sometimes you gotta do what you don’t want to do to get away with an unordinary life” -Cat Power’s song, Real Life

Today was one of those good Mondays for me.  I managed to get up and leave the apartment on time to catch the 195 bus at 7:22am, located right in front of the complex.  If I had missed that one, I’d only have to walk about 10 minutes to the next bus stop to catch the 199 at 7:34am off Merthyr Road.  But I did make it so it saved me the walking (I have actually been pretty punctual throughout placement, looking forward to the day).

I caught the 199 at 7:29am.  The 199 bus route drives me through the CBD (Central Business District) where I get to sit and observe all the incoming and outgoing passengers dressed in their Monday’s best, out to impress.  As I sit there with my eyes hidden behind my Charade shades (that I have owned since my UCSB days), I am secretly taking note of how I should be dressing once I become a young professional, and how I want to present myself to the world. I never thought about this seriously in the past, I used to entertain the idea, but this time it is becoming more intentional.  Everything that seemed so far away from me a couple of years ago, is now inching closer and closer with each passing day.  Guess this is what it feels like to be growing older, and creating some sort of path for the future.

I get off at Cultural Centre Station and continue onto the next bus, any bus that goes towards the hospital.  Usually it is the 109 bus that goes through the busway, where I get off at the second stop. I wait at the stop light to turn green, then cross it to enter the building, up the elevators to the mental health ward.

Mondays, I am with the team that gets paged to go down to the Emergency Department to assess patients who present with some sort of possible mental distress.  The most common cases thus far are young adolescent girls who commit deliberate self harm by cutting, or who attempt suicide by taking an overdose on panadol (equivalent to taking a bunch of tylenol). If the case is severely acute, with high risk, and in need of diagnostic clarification, admission will occur if we have beds available.  If not, they will get referred on to the service available within the community. Today I sat in on an assessment for a patient who was brought in by their mother because this young person refused to go to school.  This young person has been admitted into hospital into the ward several months ago for a couple of weeks for diagnostic clarification.  This young person was previously diagnosed with adjustment disorder, and low mood disorder.  My supervisor and I spent three hours assessing and doing family work with this case.  The underlying issues based on my observation, was that the mother was pretty overprotective of her teenage child who appeared to be physically and emotionally immature considering the age.  She came off as being very anxious. I don’t think it was really necessary for her to drag her child all the way to the hospital due to school refusal.  The kid was just tired from having bad sleep and did not want to go to school, but of course we do the whole psychosocial assessment and listening in to understand the presenting problem.  The kid is not happy about the family relocating from Western Australia to Queensland, and is having trouble making social connections at school.  I’d go on more about this case, but in the end, the patient was discharged and referred on to the community for ongoing sessions with a psychologist and psychiatrist to review the kid’s meds.

I was supposed to go to another family meeting at 2pm with my other supervisor who works with the team on the ward.  I left the session towards the end of assessment in Emergency Department to grab a quick bite to eat (I was in ED from 11 to 1:45pm) before sitting in on the family meeting.  I later find out it had been cancelled so I began writing up my assessment for the next hour and a half or so.   Before I knew it, 4:30 was creeping up on me indicating that my day was about to come to an end.

I checked my personal emails and make my way towards the bus stop.

I got some good news while checking my email.  I made it to the next stage for a casual retail position at Tiffany’s.   I had applied several weeks ago in need of a weekend job (since I had to let go of my last admin position on campus due to placement).  I went through the whole online process of applying and answering scenario questions and submitted not giving it anymore thought.  I made it through to the group interviews last week, which is a first for me since I have never done group interviews before (I usually get hired by knowing someone, or on the spot, or yea..)  I tend not to like competition or be competitive, and so I did not treat the group interview as such, and was just myself.  It’s reassuring to know that being myself was enough to get me through to the next round.  I was pretty happy to receive the good news.  I like having an income, which enables me to do the things I enjoy.  I hope it all goes smoothly from here on til the new year.

I hopped onto the 66 bus to Cultural Centre, and then onto the 196 to New Farm.  I stopped by Coles to pick up a few stuff for dinner and lunch for the next couple of days. I arrived back to the apartment at around 5:40 pm, changed clothes, and cut up the pre-made chicken roast for dinner.  Then prepared my lunch for tomorrow.

Afterwards I had the most amazing and relaxing bath ever.  I had treated myself to buy bath oil from Perfect Potions a couple of weeks ago, and have been putting it to good use.  It is always nice to make the time for me to sit in silence, soaked under a nice warm bath filled with geranium, lavender and ylang ylang- it was very calming as it washed all my worries away.  I felt so rejuvenated, I thought I would write about it and about my day for a change.

I usually feel way too tired to post, and I know I have some posts to catch up on, but I’ll try to get around to it. It has not been a priority lately, but stay tuned.

It’s close to 9pm, better start winding down and sleep.  I love my sleep.